The BitCoin Chance for Poor Farmers
May 27, 2016The underdeveloped countries of the world make up a huge percentage of the world’s population but also contain the majority of the people living in poverty. At the same time, the same countries possess the biggest percentage of individuals who make their livelihood through agriculture and farming. Because of the low level of industrial development, these nations, located mostly in Africa and Asia, are dependent on their farming for not just the overall functioning of their governments, but also for keeping their populations fed.
Unfortunately, during the last several decades, farming in the underdeveloped nations has come under a series of pressures from a range of sources. The first and the most apparent issue is the ongoing climate change process that is fueled by the production of greenhouse gasses. As the climate changes, so do individual regions go through many turbulent issues that are mostly related to the water supply.
No matter if this problem comes in the form of flooding caused by the rise of the global sea level or droughts that continue for years, they can cripple the natural weather pattern used by farmers everywhere.
Aside from these problems, farming on this scale is devastated by the modern markets and trade agreement. These do not only limit the amount of export to a certain foreign country but also hamper farmers from obtaining a fair price for their products.
This process is vicious and it is clear to see how it continues to keep the farmers near the poverty line in a similar position, generation after generation. But now, in the modern global world, the issue facing these people is a planetary problem because a breakdown in the country’s ability to produce food would lead to a massive movement of people and their influx into the developed and developing nations.
This is why today, the agricultural domain in the underdeveloped countries desperately needs all good ideas that could be useful. The BitCoin network is known for its potential to offer benefits to all of its users, no matter where they reside. The same digital currency could also prove to be a huge help to farmers who want to use technology to improve their chances of rising out of poverty.
A Pressing Need for a Banking System
No matter when an underdeveloped country is located, it is more than likely that it provides an exceedingly limited range of financial services to its population. The reasons for this are numerous and many go way back to the colonial times when most of these nations first came into contact with the banking systems. Today, the lingering remnants of the past still actively hamper farmers across the world from having easy and steady access to any type of banking service.
BitCoin is able to bridge over the entire length of the historical residue and offer the same people an exact same service it provides to, for example, people in the western nation who use BTC to bet online. Unlike other issues plaguing these nations, mobile access is not one of them. With the widespread availability of the mobile carriers, even the poorest farmers have access information and the Internet, even though it is not a broadband connection.
However, even a limited connection is all that anyone needs to connect to a provider of digital wallet services. There, using a simple BTC wallet, they will be able to attain a range of financial services, including remittance and even small-scale loans.
While most of these farmers would need to, at one point or another, transform their BTC into a traditional currency, they will still be able to attain most of the advantages that come with the use of BitCoin. At the same time, as the number of farmers who own digital wallets grows, the ability to trade amongst each other could also come about.
Today, most of this type of trade goes on through material goods, which take up time and effort on the both sides of the trade. With BTC, this could be avoided and instead exchanged for a method that uses nothing more than a few touches of a screen on a smartphone.
The Connection to the Developed World
An issue that is also providing farmers in the underdeveloped nations with plenty of headaches is the process of export. By being dependent on the wealthy nation to buy their goods for foreign exchange, farmers must enter a bad deal with the local companies which then export the goods out of the country. The same exporters cut into the profit, leaving the farmers with the short end of the straw.
But, through financial independence that comes with BitCoin, farmers would be able to create their own organization for export and use it to send their goods to the foreign markets. In many ways, this would emulate the process that took place in the western nations at the end of the 19th century, where small producers often allied themselves to hammer out a better deal.
The BitCoin network would allow them, just like it allows, for example, E-Sports competitors, to have an equal opportunity to find those who are willing to work with them, no matter their geographical location. This way, the BTC transactions would not only allow for a more lucrative exchange but also a chance to change and replace clients while the farmers look for the best possible deal. Currently, most producers in the underdeveloped nations fight tooth and nail to enter the international market and will often take hit after hit just to stay there.
BitCoin could make sure that their position is stable even if they decide to drop a certain client. With digital wallets and an independent export system, finding a new one should be a lot easier task.
Overcoming Poverty through Cooperation
More than anything, BitCoin network access would allow these farmers to come together in their own area around a single goal, using the same basic infrastructure. This way, they would be able to make a rainy day collective fund and do much more, all because of the shared financial support system.
History has shown plenty of times that while outside help is useful, the motivation and the drive of the local individuals is what bring about change in any place on the planet. Here, when it comes to rural areas of the underdeveloped nations, the BitCoin could be this essential help that would allow forward-thinking individuals to pull themselves and their peers from the shackles of the cycle of poverty.